The American Dream

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By Timothy Rubacky, Senior Vice President

I think we would all agree that it’s been a rather eventful week. After two years of campaigning, billions of dollars, unending television ads, countless shaken hands and thousands of babies kissed, the 2012 election if finally over. We don’t play politics here at the American Queen Steamboat Company and I can say that for me, personally, what moved me to tears most was the process of democracy.

All one has to do is to think of the thousands of lives lost recently in the places like Libya, Syria, Egypt and Tunisia as people took to the streets fighting for change, fighting for freedom and fighting to have their votes really matter. Contrast that struggle for the most basic of human rights with America’s smooth democratic process.

Don’t ever let anyone tell you that we have become complacent as a nation or as a people to the miracle of democracy. It is days like this past Tuesday, Election Day, that bring that point home to me like no other time. We saw helicopter shots showing lines of people stretching for blocks in places like Virginia and Florida waiting to vote. Interviews with people in New York and New Jersey leaving their ruined homes in the wake of Superstorm Sandy to stand in line to vote, to find their polling places gone and then diligently following signs to new, temporary centers to cast their vote.

Think about the majesty of it all. Here in a country where brother snipes at brother and where it seems we sometimes can’t agree on even those most basic of issues, the process of hope for the future brings us together and we do so with dignity, patience and a deep sense of appreciation. Some voters waited as long as 8 hours to vote in certain spots and they didn’t become discouraged or leave. Why? I believe it’s because the privilege of being able to determine one’s destiny and to vote is ingrained in all of us. We would no more give up on voting because a line is long than we would stop breathing. Democracy is who we are and it is a remarkable thing.

That spirit is what has made America great and a nation that nurtures creativity, rewards innovation and appreciates its past. This the environment in which we came together just over a year or so ago to create the American Queen Steamboat Company with a dream of returning the American Queen to service. For us, she is more than the American Queen. She is the American Dream.

Let me close today’s blog with the words of one of our presidents spoken a few decades ago during a State of the Union address.

“I've read the constitutions of a number of countries,” he said. “Now, some people are surprised to hear that they have a constitution, and it even supposedly grants a number of freedoms to its people. Many countries have written into their constitution provisions for freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. Well, if this is true, why is the Constitution of the United States so exceptional?

“Well, the difference is so small that it almost escapes you, but it's so great it tells you the whole story in just three words: We the people. In those other constitutions, the Government tells the people of those countries what they're allowed to do. In our Constitution, we the people tell the Government what it can do, and it can do only those things listed in that document and no others. Virtually every other revolution in history has just exchanged one set of rulers for another set of rulers. Our revolution is the first to say the people are the masters and government is their servant. And you young people out there, don't ever forget that. Someday you could be in this room, but wherever you are, America is depending on you to reach your highest and be your best -- because here in America, we the people are in charge.

“Just three words: We the people -- those are the kids on Christmas Day looking out from a frozen sentry post on the 38th parallel in Korea or aboard an aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean. A million miles from home, but doing their duty.

“We the people -- those are the warmhearted whose numbers we can't begin to count, who'll begin the day with a little prayer for hostages they will never know and MIA families they will never meet. Why? Because that's the way we are, this unique breed we call Americans.

“We the people -- they are the entrepreneurs, the builders, the pioneers, and a lot of regular folks -- the true heroes of our land who make up the most uncommon nation of doers in history. You know they're Americans because their spirit is as big as the universe and their hearts are bigger than their spirits.”

The American Queen is part of the fabric of the American Dream and we are honored, grateful and immensely moved to be living in a country where it’s possible to do what we’re doing. My thanks to all of you who stood in line to vote, who carefully considered the issues and candidates and made your choices with a combination of reverence, joy and passion. At the American Queen Steamboat Company, we are proud to fly our country’s flag each and every day over the river and to live in a democracy that makes great dreams come true and allows us to share those dreams with all of you.